The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club is a new historical fiction novel by Helen Simonson, bestselling author of Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand. Set in the small British town of Hazelbourne, the novel follows Constance, a young woman of the working class, as she acts as companion to a lady on seaside holiday. Like the rest of Britain, Hazelbourne is recovering its footing after WWI—it’s 1919 and victory has been won, but loss is still the overwhelming sentiment. An entire generation of young men has been decimated, and to make room for the boys who did come home, women who so competently stepped into the workforce during the war are now being pushed back into the home. Constance isn’t sure where she’ll land after her summer with Mrs. Fog, but despite her financial worries, she finds plenty to keep her mind occupied in Hazelbourne. Poppy Wirrall, for one, is the most vibrant and unconventional young woman Constance has ever encountered—she wears trousers, rides a motorcycle, and, despite enjoying a trust fund as a baronet’s daughter, runs her own business conveying patrons in her sidecar like a taxi driver. After meeting at the hotel, Poppy takes Constance under her wing and introduces her to her circle: there’s Harris, her handsome older brother who was wounded in war; Mrs. Wirrall, her fabulous mother who resides in the hotel; and the members of the ladies’ motorcycle club, who race and repair bikes using the funds from Poppy’s conveyance business. All take a shine to Constance, and she suddenly finds herself part of a community in a way she hasn’t felt in a long time. As Constance joyfully opens up, she simultaneously dreads the reality that awaits her at the end of the summer—is there a way to hold on to this new version of herself, or is this experience meant to be nothing more than a sweet memory?
Time and time again, Simonson proves herself a master of the genre; her novels are compassionate and well-written, and she frames deeply personal stories in highly researched, historical settings. In The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club, her characters breathe with life—Poppy blowing by on her motorcycle, Constance dancing for the first time since the war, Harris brimming with tears at the sight of an old airplane—and each chapter captures the way joy and grief exist hand in hand. From the start, I found myself invested in Constance’s story, wrapped up in her new friendships and fledgling romances, and despite the quiet, understated tone of the novel, I kept breathlessly turning the pages. I loved learning about the plight of women following WWI and the creative ways in which they maintained their newfound independence after being thanklessly demoted to their former roles, and I loved experiencing it all through the free-spirited, vivacious women of the motorcycle club. Reading The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club felt like escaping on my own seaside holiday, and I never wanted it to end—highly recommend.
I’d recommend this book to…
- Anyone who loves stories of resilience and community set in a charming locale… it’s similar in theme to The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
- Anyone in the mood for something empowering and realistically romantic… it’s similar in tone to Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
- Anyone looking for deeply personal, fascinating historical fiction… it’s similar in style to The Secret Book of Flora Lea by Patti Callahan Henry
